Friday, April 28, 2006

Thanks for playing, D-Rays

I was thinking on the Devil Rays and Red Sox series this weekend as I was driving home tonight and had a bit of a change of heart on the team.

Not so much on the organization which uses its public address system to drown out the retirees who come to cheer for their teams now that they've relocated to Florida, because that'skind of sketchy, but for the players involved.

Whereas I've always thought the most the received was a steady paycheck and some sort of "Participant" ribbon from MLB at the end of the season, I feel a little more sympathy for them as the team everyone expects to beat.

Anyone with an AL rooting interest can relate that they see the Rays on the schedule and think, "OK, three wins there..." It's disappointing if you take one of three from Tampa, worse yet if you get swept.

The law of averages says that even an awful team will win 30 to 40 times a year, so those wins have to come at someone's expense. It's probably tough to be discounted like that. That's really got to wear on a guy after a while.

Worse still is a team resting their stars during the series against you, figuring they have a better than average chance to win, regardless of who they throw out there. Not saying they're world beaters and they are handsomely compensated for their time, but really, you make it to the big leagues and you end up on the Rays?

2 Comments:

"The law of averages says that even an awful team will win 30 to 40 times a year"

40 wins would be 122 losses. Only ONE team in the history of baseball has lost more than 120 games in a season. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders went 20-134. The next worst record is the 1962 New York Mets at 40-120. The Devil Rays worst season? 55-106 (2002). The Rays WILL flirt with .500 this season.